This discussion with Steve Gabriel of Wellspring Forest Farm and the Cornell Small Farms Program will highlight ways to start cultivating mushrooms at home and in community efforts. Some examples we will explore include inoculating shiitake logs and oyster stumps, bringing production into vegetable gardens, and cultivation practices in the home kitchen. We’ll leave plenty of time for Q&A around the species students are interested in cultivating and the opportunities and challenges of various approaches.

Steve Gabriel is a farmer, ecologist, author, and educator living and stewarding 20 acres with his family in the Finger Lakes region of central New York. Their farm, Wellspring Forest Farm, is focused on producing mushrooms, maple syrup, pastured lamb, and nursery trees in forest-based ecosystems and educating others.

He also works part time at the Cornell Small Farms Program coordinating the projects at www.CornellMushrooms.org and www.CornellAgroforestry.org which provide research and educational materials to the public.